i see my heart explode, it's been eroded by the weather here

well i'm glad to hear that i'm not the only one who gets a rash when that song comes on the radio - and picklesack, too! you can be hanged as a traitor in vancity for even implying that you might find nickleback a tad grating.

the winds are going to pick up again here today. we've had some crazy frickin' weather this year - seriously. last week during the windstorm the architect and i were woken up by a massive metallic crashing in the street. i leapt to my window to see what was the matter, but alas the moon on the crest of the rain soaked lawn revealed that my car (the green goblin, itself) was still in place - my wondering eyes spied only a garbage can careening down the block. le sigh - i had really hoped santa was getting me a new FJ for christmas...

oh heh - apparently our esteemed RCMP were called out to a mall yesterday to break up a gaggle of drunk santas. is that the correct word for a group of santas? gaggle? herd? flock? whichevs - drunk santas getting rousted by the cops is comedy gold...

you know you make it hard not to vomit...

it's a miracle that there is any morning at all that i make it to work without ritualistically flaying someone. seriously. the day that i no longer have to go through that fcuking tunnel to get anywhere will be a happy day indeed. four g-darn double long dumptrucks riding bareback REFUSING to let any silly little CAR come between them and their heavy duty truck on truck dance of love. RAWWWRRRRRR!!!!

to add insult to injury they played that fucking hinder song - quite possibly the worst song on the radio today. yes i said worst. seriously - every friday night, in tacky top forty bars all across north america, drunken frat boys are grinding coked up former cheerleaders to that song right before the ugly lights come up, thinkin that they're don juan casanova, when really they are mac'ing to a song about CHEATING ON YOUR GIRLFRIEND.

FYI - not romantic, fellas.


(ps - i might have a little bit of pre-menstrual tension. i'm not sure why i get that sense, but there it is.)

a festivus

oh man i'm starting to think that there is something to this whole bah humbug grinch thing.

bah.

humbug.

i ran my ass off all weekend - shopped like crazy, baked, organized, decorated, stressed myself out, puked my guts out, and for what? seven days before christmas, then i pack it all up and it's like it never happened.

bah.

humbug.

i think i just need to sit back and relax in the lights of my tree (finished decorating at 10.30 last night), gaze upon our newly purchased dining table (bought in a rush at 5.30 last night) and drink a gallon of wine. oh wait i can't cause i still have baking to do, some gifts to purchase, and then i have to wrap the works.

bah.

ok i'm done now. hey the architect and i are going to have a festivus/christmas/housewarming/what-have-you party on the 22nd. if you care to brave the drive to metro ladner, we'd love to have you. send me an email and i'll pass on the topo maps...

oh what fun it is to ride

so on my way to work there is a decidedly dark stretch in a light-industrial area. in the mornings, if i hit it at just the right time, driving along that length of road is akin to running a 'young drivers' obstacle course - all these dark clad targets darting out from between cars, doing that sheepish shuffle-run in front of your car clutching lunchbags and umbrellas. one day a tragedy will occur, some little traffic dodger will be laid out like yesterday's tuna sandwich.

seriously.

a cornucopia of goodness blissfully bursting in my belly (or something like that)

so i've just converted my blogs over to 'the new blogger'. aside from looking slightily... er... shall we say budget i'm not noticing much difference.

i'm unenthused about my job, lately. it's not that i don't *care*... well kind of i don't but i think it's just that the past few weeks have been emotionally trying and i need a holiday. fortunately, i work three days this week, then next is the week before christmas, then i'm off till january 8th. i heart vacations. we are going up the sunshine coast for 4 days for new years with a bunch of people, and off to whistler for boxing day, but aside from that it's going to be a lot of doing nothing, i think. hopefully the weather will be nice so we can do some fun outside type stuff, but i can't be assed to make any more concrete plans than that. plus, lets not kid - no matter how relaxing you think that christmas vacations will be, they always end up being a nightmare of busy-ness. i'm going to attempt to avoid that.

i finally went grocery shopping for the christmas baking yesterday. $250 later, i have almost all the stuff i need. (i say almost 'cause round about 3am i was jerked out of a deep sleep by the realization that i'd forgotten to buy icing sugar. or maybe it was the bedroom door slamming in the wind - who can say?) i've got quite a list of things to put together, but since the architect and i have finally got the house (mostly) sorted out, i can ignore the remaining boxes (can't do anything with'em until i have some shelves) and focus on cranking out at least one shining gem o' christmassy goodness a night.

------------------------------------------------------
in other news, i read this article this morning and found it quite fascinating. the constant evolution (or is it a devolution?) of language is a source of great interest for me. i love reading about how words gain power or lose power through use or lack thereof. say, for example, christmas. now that walmart has 'brought back christmas', does it mean that the term has finally become a generic label for a formerly religous now increasingly secular celebration? what does christmas even mean anymore? for me it's mostly a time of celebrating with family and friends - there is very little religious meaning to it. i wouldn't go so far as to say that it's completely commercialized for me - i think rather that, in my head, it's closer to a time to celebrate love and friendship and caring and giving. does that mean, therefore, that what i do should be called something different? like, does the pc-friendly 'winter holiday celebration' designation stand as more appropriate to use in my case, or has the word 'christmas' gone the way of xerox, jello, and kleenex and come to signify any event (christian or NOT-christian, but not those associated with other religious denominations) celebrated at that time of year?

anyhoo... i'm getting too text-heavy. i'll try and post some pix from the office christmas party which ended up being legend (wait for it! hope you aren't lactose intolerant 'cause here it is..)dairy....

all i want for christmas

so while i was driving in to work today they were talking about the worst christmas songs ever released, and played a snippet of some kid singing about how he (she? who can tell pre-puberty) ate beans and farted on santa's lap.

now if that won't get you into the spirit of the season, i dunno what will.

i'm so not ready for christmas this year. usually i'm done my shopping and my baking by now - this year i haven't even really started the shopping and i DEFINATELY have not started the baking - though the sister has written a wishlist up on my noteboard at home. i do have a 3-day weekend this week and a four day next, so i can get my head above water with the unpacking tomorrow/sunday and then next weekend can bake, wrap & shop.

notice how i left saturday off that for the unpacking madness? see it's my office christmas party on friday night, so we are attending that, then are heading dahn-tahn to see bassnectar at dicks afterwards. i imagine saturday will be a festival of nothingness - lounging in pjs and watching movies in front of the fire... i heart that idea, especially because it is supposed to be ass-esque weatherwise this weekend.

oooo i get a mani-pedi on friday, too. i don't know what dress to wear though - i have a great ann taylor wine coloured silk number that i've never worn, but no shoes that will really go with. or, alternatively, i could wear the floor-length dress i wore to mikeb's christmas party last year, since no one at my office has really seen it. i *do* have shoes to match it, but i kinda want to wear the silk one. what to do, what to do.....

december 6, 1989

Genevieve Bergeron- Nathalie Croteau - Anne-Marie Edward - Maryse Laganiere - Anne-Marie Lemay - Michele Richard - Annie Turcotte - Helene Colgan - Barbara Daigneault - Maud Haviernick - Maryse LeClair - Sonia Pelletier - Annie St-Arneault - Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz

i don't know what to call this post

so yesterday i stayed home 'cause when i got up my eyes were pretty much swollen shut and felt as though they were full of ground glass.

so awesome. mind you we've got a fairly nasty and daunting project for the day here at work, so i'm half wishing that they still felt that way today. though now that i think of it the project involves digging through 1500 files, so they may very well by the end of today. even more awesome.

i've unpacked my kitchen, the bathrooms, and my clothes. i have no idea where anything else is - including my jewellry and my alarm clock. le sigh .

tell y'all a story bout a joker and a thief

so we moved (and when i say 'we' i mean 'he') the architects furniture and boxes to the new place yesterday. i stayed home and had a snow day from work. i love working in my jammies - it rocks. i wanted to wear them again today but figured the new HR lady would look at the poohbear bottoms a touch askance. maybe not - it *is* casual friday, after all.

i think we found a 'just for now' kitchen table at ikea - it's square and has little stools. i like it... it's nowhere near as nice as the one we want to be our 'real' table (from moe's), but it'll do as a breakfast table kind of thing.

oh man listen to me - suzy homemaker over here. hmmm must post a naughty photo to mitigate the boringness....

is your name michael diamond?

ah come on - y'all know the next line. admit it.

i feel kinda beat up. i'm not sure if i'm fighting off a cold or flu, or if it's just the stress of the move. the guys we hired to bring the architect's stuff from kits to ladner cancelled last night due to weather, and he sort of has to be out by 1pm tomorrow. i'm not too stressed, since i paid rent till the 15th and, let's not kid, i rent from my parents and while they are looking forward to converting my bedroom to a tv room it's not too entirely pressing a desire. a few days one side or the other of this weekend doesn't matter much to anyone.

well, except me 'cause i just want the whole ordeal to be OVER.

i want to take some cleaner and some shelf paper over and bring the dishes etc and start getting settled. i can't tell you how much i'm looking forward to having my own space, my own kitchen, my own living room. oh and my own kitchen table - still don't have one of those, but i've got a damn cool purple chaise that no one will be allowed to eat on goshfukkit.

slip sliding away

my office is decidedly empty so far this morning. mind you, it did take me an hour to get here, today (a quick americano pitstop notwithstanding) and that was in the architect's all wheel drive winter tire clad audi. i'm not entirely sure i would have made it out of my driveway in my little green goblin.

i was off yesterday obstensibly to pack, but ended up baking muffins and shovelling out the entrance to the condo complex. i hurled ice and (very heavy) snow for over 2 hours and today am hobbling like a geriatric former NFL quarterback. very sexy, let me tell you. this is interesting though - i have this little cordless, heated, hand-held massager. as a result of my poor aching back, the architect and i actually used it for its intended purpose last night. sweet mother of god how glorious is *that*? i can't believe i never considered using it for an actual massage before. not exactly sure what that says about my personality, but there it is...

you told me you wanted to eat up my sadness

ug i have a crapload of work today but am suffering a low-grade hangover, and really *really* can't get into it. plus we found out yesterday that our bonuses are going to be over a month late - frustrating because of le relocation as well as le christmas. le sigh.

last night we went for dinner at friends - drank a couple of bottles of wine and discovered my new favouite drink. mm kahlua and almond milk. well i think it was good, anyway - i've been taking a *lot* of painkillers so the wine hit me a little harder than it normally does, if you catch my drift. this weekend has a few things up - maybe a lounge for a girls night out on friday, possibly dancing on saturday, and a whole lot of packing. good thing i have monday off, too.

the new house... it's 3/4 of a house - 3 bedrooms plus a den, all laminate flooring with a little deck out front and a big covered deck (perfect for year round bbq-ing) in back. as well, the back yard is lovely. there is one girl living downstairs - the landlord says she's super nice, but we've not met her yet. we are going to try and put the kiddo's room as far away from hers as possible so that he doesn't bother her with music late at night, but still feels free to play it. the house is painted in varying shades of blue except for the 2 small bedrooms which are white and the master bedroom which is a mocha colour that the architect and i picked. we're going to paint the kiddo's room dark red for him, 'cause he's always wanted that. we'll just have to paint it back before we move out again. the other good thing is that we didn't have to sign a lease - after the summer we can move back to the city no problemo.

i'm super excited - i've been buying bamboo towels and fun stuffs for the kitchen and looking at christmas lights and all sorts of stuff. i can't wait, but i'm really nervous, too. it's been a long time since i lived with someone. what if he decides he hates my funny little eccentricities? what if i all of a sudden hate his?

i wanna show you how the mailboy flirts

so a bunch of people over at alaska airlines got reprimanded and/or dismissed for talking about their jobs on their myspace pages.

rule 1 of blogging - if you want to remain anonymous, don't post your name and photos of yourself.
rule 2 of blogging - if you want to keep your job, either make sure your employer is a-ok with your site or shut the fuck up about your place of employ.
rule 3 of blogging - no flashing icons, sparkly bits dancing across the screen, or midi soundtracks.

ok three isn't a rule just a quiet, desperate plea from me, raspberry sundae.

this whole move thing is creeping on up super quick. the architect booked the truck to get his stuff from kits to l-town for NEXT WEDNESDAY. i'm getting really excited about the prospects of having a place of my own - one where i can invite all my friends back for dinner, or games, or cocktails... who wants to come to my housewarming?

where are you going

ok so here's my issue.

i had to take a little break here 'cause i've become desperately afraid of being one of those bloggers who just kind of falls into a routine of talking about their relationship and what she did for the weekend and how great/boring/much of a dolt/much of a wonderful example of humanity her boyfriend is.

so i'm working on finding a new path here, and working on making sure that i *make* time for this little bloggy, 'cause i do love coming here and i've missed the interaction i have with myself and with the readers (assuming i have any left). i just want to make sure i don't get caught in a rut. there are bloggers, of course, who manage to keep their lives and their inner voices entirely separate. i want to be one of those.

so bear with me as i find my footing, ok? the next few weeks will be a little rocky, but i'm sure my voice will come back and all will be well in blogland, again. i'll go back to writing about sex and stuff and shoes and more stuff and more shoes and getting loaded/high/going dancing/the kiddo/etc and no one will know that we've had this little 'break' ok bloggity? ok

xo

(edit - thanks to spo, this sort of sums it up...)

rocky mountain hi-iiiyh

so here are my first impressions of colorado springs - mother fucker is flat. seriously. ok yes there is a mountain over there, oh and there's that bunker disguised as a rockpile they call norad but when we were flying over denver you could see the rockies on one side and then i could see straight through to new york to the east i swear to god.

i'm drinking the weakest coffee in the world, at the moment, by the way. mmm hotel room coffee. so so bland.

our plan is to leave here on saturday, drive through to sheridan wyoming (former home of buffalo bill hickock) and spend the night, then go to missoula montana (called the garden city because it's apparently warmer than anywhere else in the state), and then home monday.

walmart is bringing back christmas. makes sense to me - say happy holidays all you want but the holiday you are celebrating 'round about that time of year is kinda christmas, here in north america. yes there are other holidays around that time of year, and you are right not everyone celebrates christmas, but heck - you don't have to celebrate them now do you? but that's just me - it's the P/C thing that has always irritated me the most. anyway, what has that got to do with colorado springs? well because walmart is the largest employer in el paso county (which is where i happen to be). crazy, huh?

anyhooo... i have to finish my beige water and head on out. i've got a busy day as a booth babe in front of me.

xo

i like to move it move it

written earlier today
I’m currently flying somewhere over (or so I speculate) eastern Washington. Sadly, I have no idea what is just east of Washington. I will, however, be finding out soon. I’ve been mentally making clichéd observations about patchwork landscapes that I’m ashamed to put to put to paper. I’m a better writer than that, dammit, but it’s true – the landscape does look like a patchwork quilt lovingly embroidered by your mom or grandma or someone who cares about you and just wants you to stay warm wrapped up in that proverbial blanket of emotion.

So there.

I’m reading that newish book by chuck klosterman and it’s making me feel like I should be working harder at what I know I’m good at – sitting back and finding patterns in books and the world at large and talking about them in writing. I feel this way because he writes in the same conversational tone as I do (at this point I feel the need to apologize for any perceived sense of hubris or self-idoloatry, but I can’t because I’m busy restraining myself from taking angus macintoy and whapping him over the head of the woman sitting in front of me. She keeps attempting to recline her seat back farther – I’m fairly sure it’s as far back as it should politely be reclined in these days of limited legroom and economy class bloodclots – and jamming my computer into my belly as I type. Rawr.) Anyway, C-dawg writes with the same tone as me (though infinitely more skill) and it makes me feel as though I should be doing more of it.

It’s hard, though, what with the architect pretty much living in my bedroom with me, since my car still refuses to function to expectation. I feel kinda rude whacking away at the bloggity, but there it is. So I try to write when I first get to work, but that can be dodgy as well – what if there are phone messages? Emails? Notes left on my monitor by colleagues and superiors? Dodgy.

The united cabin crew is distributing beverages and light snacks intended to keep the masses sated during our 2-hour hop to Denver. I’ve been handed biscuits which I am (miraculously) not allergic to, and am accepting a glass of nay an entire can of (strangely) tomato juice. Why tomato juice? I have no idea.

The architect had originally intended to fly to Colorado springs with me. Flight prices discouraged, this, and then just yesterday we formulated this spur of the moment adventure plan – he’s driving down, and we are going to take 3 days to drive back together (hence my cryptic comment about learning a bit about American geography). I’m excited about this because I’ve not seen much of the states – some bits of Tennessee, Atlanta, seattle (but only recently) and george Washington (which I now am intimately familiar with).

As an aside, no one else is bouncing around in their seat the way the woman in front of me is. I wonder if she can feel my laser death rays penetrating her seatback? Do you think she knows how close she is to horrifying mutilation and/or dismemberment?

My moustache still tastes of your testes!

so the rental agreement was signed on friday - it's official. the architect and i are shackin' up. this causes me belly aches of excitement and/or sheer terror.

speaking of belly aches - went to see Borat this weekend. you know, it debuted at #1, even though it's only playing on something like 800 screens. people clearly like making fun of americans & minorities. i wonder how many can see the social satire that is at the root of the humour? don't get me wrong - by the end of the film i wasn't even laughing anymore, just making a sick kind of wheezing noise. the kiddo was in a similar state - i looked over at him and he was supporting his head in his hand, holding his stomach, and the tears were rolling down his face. go see it - it's great.

on wednesday morning i'm going to colorado springs for work. the architect was originally going to go with me, but tickets are pricey so i told him to save the money and spend it on cool house stuff like, oh i dunno, a kitchen table, which we kinda need.

plus we are going to try and go to seattle to see adam freeland (joy!) and i want christmas presents...

this city is haunted

who says drugs don't pay? kate moss (just voted 'model of the year' at the british fashion awards) earned 30,013,935.67CAD last year - the year she was dropped from several lucrative modelling contracts after pictures of her *allegedly* hoovering back line upon line of gak hit the tabloids. this is, of course, in comparison to the 9,646,691.10CAD she earned the year *before* the pictures were published.

what is this i'm feeling? frustration? amusement? bemusement? could it be that i find myself actually giving a shit about the hipocrasy of the media and public opinion? it couldn't be that i'm surprised, surely.

i know, i know. don't call me shirley.

that big corner office in the sky....

I know I’ve talked about this before, but I’m really strongly impacted by music – a lyric or a chord can resound in me like few things can. Not sure why, as I’m completely musically inept, but there it is.

Today I was flipping through my itunes and realized it has been a while since I’ve listened to Matt Good. I have the In a Coma album saved on my work computer, cause it gives me a nice selection from his catalogue, so started listening to ‘oh be joyful’, and realized how much I actually love this song. There’s something about the plinky-plinky guitar bit in the middle that makes my belly tighten. Weird, huh? There’s no real explanation for it – I have no emotional connection to the man or the song – but it makes me feel… funny, for lack of a better word.

I got mildly scolded by my pharmacist the other night because I was 26 days overdue renewing the prescription for my meds. I knew I’d been fairly … er … laissez faire about taking them, but didn’t realize I had been *that* bad. Not good, sundae, not good.

Went looking at apartments last night and have found one that looks pretty promising – not too bad on the money, laminate flooring, and I can bring Agent Double-Oh-Kitty with me. Plus it’s in a neighbourhood close to a few of the kiddo’s friends, which makes him happy. The whole moving thing stresses me out, though – like a lot. Packing, cleaning, moving, setting up… I just want to make sure that everything is settled in time for Christmas…

Which, by the way, is a short 53 days away.

Gak.

got thrashed throughout the 30s

so i get this email thing from some management coaching company in vancouver. i'm not sure why - something to do with the five buh-jillion email addresses that i screen, but whatevs. in it today was this list of questions to ask when someone came storming into your office - it works for the office arena, but might also be useful for at home conflict type every day life situations, too, i think.

1) What's supposed to happen?
2) Who's responsibility is that?
3) How is that useful?
4) We don't need to be having this conversation.
5) What do you recommend?
6) Is this drama or about outcomes?
7) We're not paying for your memories.

ok maybe not #7 - unless of course you work at a happy ending massage place, in which case they are paying for their *own* memories... hey speaking of which, the architect's apartment building is also home to such a classy establishment. last night as we popped in for hot monkey sex after dinner (the problem with staying at my place now that my folks are back upstairs is that i'm super selfconcious about making lots of noise) there was a gentleman emerging from this place with quite the grin, let me tell you. the architect didn't put two and two together until, halfway up the first flight of stairs, i turned, looked at him, and made the universal hand signal for 'pull the goalie'. he almost fell backwards down the stairs laughing...